Meet & Greet: ‘Magic of Belle Isle’ Star Emma Fuhrmann On Working with Morgan Freeman — ‘He Was Really Like a Dad to Me’

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It’s not every day you get to eat White Castle with Morgan Freeman — but for 10-year-old Emma Fuhrmann, it was all in a days work.

The young actress appears alongside the Oscar-winner in the recently released The Magic Belle Isle, and Fuhrmann tells Celebuzz the cast really bonded over their burger lunches and costar Virginia Madsen’s themed workdays, such as “Mustache Mondays.”

“I remember watching him and he was always in character and always practicing his lines, so that kind of told you to stay focused.”

Read on for the rest of our interview with Fuhrmann:

CB: Tell us a little bit about your audition process.

EF: I did a video audition. I sent my video audition in and about two weeks later, I got a call that [director Rob Reiner] wanted to see me in New York. So I flew out to New York to audition and about two hours later, I was offered the role.

CB: What were you doing when you were called?

EF: We were in the JFK Airport. We were just like sitting there and I couldn’t scream, so I just started crying in the middle of the airport. I bet people were looking at me like I was crazy.

CB: Walk us through your first day on set.

EF: They sent me to set to rehearse but it had rained the night before, so we couldn’t do the outdoor scene that we were going to do. I was thrown into a scene that was really big and long with Morgan, and I wasn’t prepared because it was set for day seven and not day one. None of us knew our lines and that was the day me and Morgan really bonded.

CB: Were you nervous when you first met Morgan Freeman?

EF: When I’m in character I don’t really feel nervous!

CB: What is one memorable moment you had with him?

EF: Probably the one day that I had this big paragraph of lines. He worked me through it and he helped me with it. He was really like a dad to me.

CB: What is the one biggest thing that you will take away from this experience?

EF: Probably Virginia [Madsen]. She was really nice to everyone on set and she always was thinking about others. I think if I got to go on another movie, I would probably think about others and try to spend time with everyone and make everyone happy on set. That’s probably what I want to do because that’s what she did. We had Mustache Mondays, White House Wednesday, Hawaiian Friday, and 80’s day. We did crafts, beads, jewelry, painting, drawing — all kinds of stuff. I mean, she was amazing.

CB: Did the whole cast join in?

EF: Everyone wore mustaches! Everyone ate White Castle! She did the drawings and paintings just for the girls so she could bond with us and actually be our real mom. I’m so blessed to have that experience in the first place.

CB: Whose career do you want to emulate?

EF: I would like to be like Claire Danes because she stopped acting and went to college. She had won a Golden Globe at a young age and she just did so many amazing things. I just want to be able to do that and still get an education.